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Emails claimed to belong to Bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto surfaced on February 23 with the permission of early Bitcoin contributor Martii Malmi. The correspondence sheds light on the beginnings of Bitcoin and Nakamoto’s decision-making process, adding depth to the history of Bitcoin. These emails emerged during a legal battle involving Australian scientist Craig Wright, who has claimed to be Nakamoto, in London.
The Deliberate Choice of Bitcoin’s 21 Million Supply Limit
The exchange between Nakamoto and Malmi reveals that the decision to limit the Bitcoin supply to 21 million tokens was not arbitrary but a deliberate choice. Nakamoto described this step as an educated guess aimed at aligning Bitcoin’s pricing dynamics with those of fiat currencies while acknowledging the uncertainty of future market conditions, as revealed in the following statement:
“The choice of the number of tokens and the distribution program was an educated guess. It was a difficult choice because once the network starts operating, it locks in, and we are committed to it. I wanted to choose something that would make prices similar to existing currencies, but that’s very difficult without knowing the future.”
Moreover, Nakamoto emphasized that the 21 million Bitcoin would represent a portion of global trade and provide scalability for a worldwide currency system. This decision was made with the foresight that Bitcoin’s value could become more volatile compared to traditional fiat currencies:
“If you imagine it being used for a fraction of world trade, then there would only be 21 million tokens for the whole world, so it would be worth much more per unit. Values are 64-bit integers with 8 decimal places, so 1 coin is internally represented as 100000000. There is plenty of granularity if typical prices become small. For example, if 0.001 is worth 1 Euro, it might be easier to change the display so that if you have 1 Bitcoin, it’s now displayed as 1000, and 0.001 is displayed as 1.”
Nakamoto’s Noteworthy Correspondence
The emails in question address various aspects of Bitcoin beyond supply dynamics. These include its portrayal as an investment tool and concerns related to energy consumption and anonymity. Nakamoto cautioned against characterizing Bitcoin solely as an investment, highlighting the inherent risks and advocating for individual judgment:
“I’m uncomfortable with the idea of suggesting it as an investment. It’s dangerous to say that, and you should delete that part. It’s not a problem if they come to that conclusion on their own, but we can’t present it that way.”
Furthermore, Nakamoto acknowledged the potential for increased energy consumption as Bitcoin scales, but argued that it would still be less resource-intensive than traditional banking activities:
“If it grows to the point where it consumes significant energy, I think it will still be less wasteful than the labor and resource-intensive traditional banking activities it will replace.”
On the subject of anonymity, Nakamoto warned against overstating Bitcoin’s privacy features, noting that transaction histories could reveal user identities. The creator of Bitcoin mentioned that the term “anonymous” sounded somewhat suspicious and shared thoughts on the term “cryptocurrency”:
“Someone came up with the word cryptocurrency. Perhaps that’s a term we should use to describe Bitcoin, do you like it?”
